The Cambridge Companion to Homer [Paperback]

This work examines the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey and their subsequent reception.Ever since antiquity the two Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have been considered to be masterpieces, and their influence on subsequent Greek and Western literature has been immeasurable. In this volume an international team of experts discusses the poems, their background and composition, and, most originally, their subsequent reception down to the present day. Each chapter communicates the best of contemporary scholarship and offer new critical insights of its own, and closes with a guide to further reading on the topic.Ever since antiquity the two Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have been considered to be masterpieces, and their influence on subsequent Greek and Western literature has been immeasurable. In this volume an international team of experts discusses the poems, their background and composition, and, most originally, their subsequent reception down to the present day. Each chapter communicates the best of contemporary scholarship and offer new critical insights of its own, and closes with a guide to further reading on the topic.The two Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, have long been considered masterpieces, and their influence on subsequent Greek and Western literature has been immense. An international team of experts discusses the poems, their background and composition, and subsequent reception to the present day. Each chapter features contemporary critical insights and closes with a guide to further reading on the topic.Introduction Robert Fowler; Part I. The Poems and their Narrator: 1. The Iliad: an unpredictable classic Donald Lateiner; 2. The Odyssey and its explorations Michael Silk; 3. The storyteller and his audience Ruth Scodel; Part II. The Characters: 4. The gods in the Homeric epics Emily Kearns; 5. Manhood and heroism Michael Clarke; 6. Gender and Homeric epic Nancy Felson and Laura Slatkin; Part III. The Poet's CraflÃÕ